Published By: Rebel Ink Press LLC
Published: Nov 14, 2011
ISBN # 9781937265397
Word Count: 89,000
Zoey Matthews is in love. She’s been in love since the day she was dropped off by a social worker at yet another foster home on a back country road miles from nowhere, Missouri. At age ten, she met the men of her dreams. Over the course of sixteen years, Dane Cardwell, Jack Devereux and Ryan Wilkins fell in love with her, too. They’ve each told her they love her, they’ve shown her and each man has gone so far as to ask her to marry him. But what they don’t know is Zoey loves them all.
Her game of kiss and not tell all comes crashing down around her the night of her graduation from veterinary school and Zoey runs for the mountains. Of Colorado. Hoping to outrun her obsession with three men and forget them all together, she stays gone for ten years. But the wound has never healed. In fact, it’s done nothing but fester. Needing to clear the air, Zoey agrees to spend a few days back home with the boys never imagining it would turn into a week filled with comparison sex as Dane, Jack and Ryan each try to get Zoey to choose between them and their varied tastes.
When she finally tells the truth, a truth only one of them has known all along, Zoey fears the foursome will never be able to make a sharing relationship work. After all, aren’t there just too many personalities and desires to sort through? Add in the kink factor and things get really complicated. Zoey’s not convinced the truth has any merit, but there’s one thing she knows for sure”¦this time she’s playing for keeps.
Please enjoy an excerpt:
Chapter One
Butterflies the size of fruit bats circled in their own holding pattern in Zoey Matthews’ stomach as her flight stair-stepped less gently than she’d have liked into Springfield-Branson National Airport. Flying wasn’t her forte and a less than skilled pilot at the helm wasn’t helping matters. Zoey knew, however, that her bats had less to do with the ineptitude of the pilot and more to do with the three people that would be standing at the end of the ramp waiting for her. The men she’d left ten years ago who haunted her dreams and refused to turn loose of her heart. The men she loved.
“The local time is three-thirty-seven and it’s a muggy hundred and two. Thank you for flying United. Enjoy your stay in the Ozarks,” the pilot droned out. His people skills apparently weren’t much better than his flying ability.
Dear God, she’d really agreed to this. Her first return to her roots since the day after graduation when she’d stuffed her meager belongings in her car and left for greener pastures. And they were greener in Colorado, and less rocky, and filled with more cowboys. None of whom Zoey had managed to allow to capture her soul. As hard as she’d tried to move on, the best she could muster was a few short term relationships and a string of one-night stands, both of which were easy to come by on the rodeo circuit.
After completing her degree in veterinary medicine at UMC and messing her entire life up in a matter of hours after accepting her diploma, she called and took a job just outside of Denver filling in for the local vet that had been injured when a bull decided he wasn’t as lame as his owner thought and gashed the poor man from stem to sternum. Zoey quickly found out that woman doctors weren’t really all the rage in rural Colorado. The good doctor’s regulars didn’t exactly welcome her with open arms and as soon as the man recovered and came back, he managed to help her get a gig following the rodeo circuit. Talk about going from the frying pan to the fire. Working with big animals was right where Zoey wanted to be, but she wasn’t really welcome in the rodeo world either, being a woman doctor and all. It had taken her a good long while to build a bridge and become a member of that community.
The plane landed with a bump, hopped once and skidded to a halt. She’d never been so glad to be on solid ground in her life. While everyone around her rose and nearly bolted for the door, she sat perfectly still in her plush business class accommodations waiting for the crowd to clear. She never could understand the point in hurrying off a plane just to get stuck in a mass of people pushing and shoving only to have to wait on luggage anyway. Truth be told though, her hanging back today had less to do with any of that and more to do with the fact she was trying to harness her fears about seeing the men awaiting her arrival.
“Honey, are you okay?” the attendant asked, leaning over and shooting her another one of his smiles that should have melted Zoey’s panties, but didn’t seem to spark even the tiniest flame.
“Fine,” Zoey assured him. “Just waiting for the rush to die down.”
“It’s dead. You’re the only one left.”
“Oh, I’m sorry.” Zoey’s chest tightened and a thin sheen of sweat broke out over her as she jumped up and in the process of scrambling to get her carry-on out of the overhead compartment forgot she’d unzipped it earlier to retrieve her Kindle. One good yank and the bag flew apartt, contents spewing everywhere. “Shit,” she said, trying to catch her breath.
“You’re a wreck,” the attendant told her. “Sit, let me help.”
Zoey sat once again and put her head between her knees as a wave of nausea overtookher.
“Just what’s waiting for you in the Ozarks anyway?”
“Not what, who,” Zoey offered, seeing the man on all fours stuffing her toothbrush back in her bag then reaching under the seat across the aisle to grab”¦oh hell, it was John-Do.
“Well, is who a woman or a man that hasn’t figured it out yet?” he asked, holding the pink rabbit up before carefully tucking him in her bag and zipping it securely.
“Men,” Zoey confessed. “They thought they had it figured out, but they didn’t and probably still don’t.”
“Oh, I see. Well, honey, if I were one of them, I’d off the others for a chance at you.”
“That’s the problem. I can’t settle for one and I can’t have them all.”
“Interesting.” He stood and held out one hand. “May I escort you to the terminal? I gotta see the source of your frustration.”
Zoey stood, slung her Vera backpack over her shoulders and tentatively stuck her hand out to let the attendant take it. For some reason she had the preconceived notion he’d have a weak grip, but she found quite the opposite to be true. His hand held hers with a firm assurance that settled at least two of those damn bats. She allowed him to help her up then clung to him as he led her down the ramp with her bag in his other hand. The closer they got to the end of the tunnel, the quicker her breath came.
When they emerged, Zoey blinked under the fluorescent lighting and looked around never letting go of her savior’s grasp. Then there they were and she was transported back ten years. Dane Cardwell, Jack Devereux, and Ryan Wilkins. Her heart sped up and blood rushed to her center, warming her and sending a tingle through her very soul. With her eyes as big as saucers and her mouth hanging in a perfect O, she chanced a glance at the man at her side to discover he was smiling over clenched teeth. It was then she realized she was clutching his hand until the circulation was probably cut off.
“Oh, shit. I’m sorry,” she whispered.
“Not a problem,” he returned in a low voice. “I take it those are the men?”
Zoey nodded, still staring into his eyes.
“Well, let’s give them a reason to reconsider your stance and perhaps pull their heads from their asses.”
With that the man sat her bag down then bracketed her face in his smooth palms. Not what she was used to in a man. The men she usually allowed to touch her had callous roughened hands from the brute work of running ranches and the grueling life of riding rodeo. Before she could protest, he lowered his head and licked a tantalizing line across her lips then closed his mouth over hers. Dear Lord, the man could kiss and it seemed to go on forever. His wet heat mingled with hers until she was light-headed and the sound of three distinct throats being cleared interrupted their interlude.
Lila Munro
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